1Then all the congregation lifted up their voices and
cried, and the people wept that night. 2All the sons of
Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron; and the whole congregation
said to them, "Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would
that we had died in this wilderness! 3"Why is the LORD
bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our
little ones will become plunder; would it not be better for us to
return to Egypt?" 4So they said to one another, "Let us
appoint a leader and return to Egypt."

5Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces in the
presence of all the assembly of the congregation of the sons of
Israel. 6Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of
Jephunneh, of those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes;
7and they spoke to all the congregation of the sons of
Israel, saying, "The land which we passed through to spy out is an
exceedingly good land. 8"If the LORD is pleased with us,
then He will bring us into this land and give it to us--a land which
flows with milk and honey. 9"Only do not rebel against
the LORD; and do not fear the people of the land, for they will be
our prey. Their protection has been removed from them, and the LORD
is with us; do not fear them." 10But all the congregation
said to stone them with stones. Then the glory of the LORD appeared
in the tent of meeting to all the sons of Israel.

Moses Pleads for the People

11The LORD said to Moses, "How long will this people
spurn Me? And how long will they not believe in Me, despite all the
signs which I have performed in their midst? 12"I will
smite them with pestilence and dispossess them, and I will make you
into a nation greater and mightier than they."

13But Moses said to the LORD, "Then the Egyptians will
hear of it, for by Your strength You brought up this people from
their midst, 14and they will tell it to the
inhabitants of this land. They have heard that You, O LORD, are in
the midst of this people, for You, O LORD, are seen eye to eye,
while Your cloud stands over them; and You go before them in a
pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. 15"Now
if You slay this people as one man, then the nations who have heard
of Your fame will say, 16 `Because the LORD could not
bring this people into the land which He promised them by oath,
therefore He slaughtered them in the wilderness.' 17"But
now, I pray, let the power of the Lord be great, just as You have
declared, 18 `The LORD is slow to anger and abundant in
lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He will by
no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the
fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generations.'
19"Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people according
to the greatness of Your lovingkindness, just as You also have
forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now."

The LORD Pardons and Rebukes

20So the LORD said, "I have pardoned them
according to your word; 21but indeed, as I live, all the
earth will be filled with the glory of the LORD. 22"Surely
all the men who have seen My glory and My signs which I performed in
Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have put Me to the test these ten
times and have not listened to My voice, 23shall by no
means see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of
those who spurned Me see it. 24"But My servant Caleb,
because he has had a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I
will bring into the land which he entered, and his descendants shall
take possession of it. 25"Now the Amalekites and the
Canaanites live in the valleys; turn tomorrow and set out to the
wilderness by the way of the Red Sea."

26The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 27"How
long shall I bear with this evil congregation who are
grumbling against Me? I have heard the complaints of the sons of
Israel, which they are making against Me. 28"Say to them,
`As I live,' says the LORD, `just as you have spoken in My hearing,
so I will surely do to you; 29your corpses will fall in
this wilderness, even all your numbered men, according to your
complete number from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled
against Me. 30 `Surely you shall not come into the land
in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh
and Joshua the son of Nun. 31 `Your children, however,
whom you said would become a prey--I will bring them in, and they
will know the land which you have rejected. 32 `But as
for you, your corpses will fall in this wilderness. 33
`Your sons shall be shepherds for forty years in the wilderness, and
they will suffer for your unfaithfulness, until your corpses
lie in the wilderness. 34 `According to the number of
days which you spied out the land, forty days, for every day you
shall bear your guilt a year, even forty years, and you will
know My opposition. 35 `I, the LORD, have spoken, surely
this I will do to all this evil congregation who are gathered
together against Me. In this wilderness they shall be destroyed, and
there they will die.'"

36As for the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land
and who returned and made all the congregation grumble against him
by bringing out a bad report concerning the land, 37even
those men who brought out the very bad report of the land died by a
plague before the LORD. 38But Joshua the son of Nun and
Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive out of those men who went
to spy out the land.

Israel Repulsed

39When Moses spoke these words to all the sons of
Israel, the people mourned greatly. 40In the morning,
however, they rose up early and went up to the ridge of the hill
country, saying, "Here we are; we have indeed sinned, but we will go
up to the place which the LORD has promised." 41But Moses
said, "Why then are you transgressing the commandment of the LORD,
when it will not succeed? 42"Do not go up, or you will be
struck down before your enemies, for the LORD is not among you.
43"For the Amalekites and the Canaanites will be there in
front of you, and you will fall by the sword, inasmuch as you have
turned back from following the LORD. And the LORD will not be with
you." 44But they went up heedlessly to the ridge of the
hill country; neither the ark of the covenant of the LORD nor Moses
left the camp. 45Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites
who lived in that hill country came down, and struck them and beat
them down as far as Hormah.

The Holy Bible, New American
Standard Version (c)1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1973, 1975, 1977,
1995 by the Lockman
Foundation, La Habra, CA. All rights reserved. Words
identified as being spoken by Jesus are in red.www.BibleABC.net